


Death Gods and Detectives

by Elandil



Category: Bleach, Death Note
Genre: Kinda Crack, Ryuk is having too much fun with this, Still has a serious plot, Uruhara's failed inventions
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-25
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-09-02 02:54:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,288
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8648938
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Elandil/pseuds/Elandil
Summary: Surely after saving Rukia the substitute team would have at least a small chance of a normal life? Not likely. Now Ichigo and his squad must face their most dangerous mission of all, University in the mortal world... no, wait, its Kira. How will Ichigo cope when he joins the investigation team, but as a suspect?





	1. Chapter 1

Allowing himself to slump back into the soft cushions of his seat, Ichigo studied the young man before him, processing what he had just heard. It wasn't as though the meaning wasn't clear, it was just that, well, it was so absurd that it was refusing to go in.

"So…" He started out, his voice thick with disbelief and his expression frozen from shock. "What you're saying is… you are L and you suspect me of being Kira?"

As he finished off the question, the young shinigami couldn't help but shake is head at the sheer improbability of that last statement. After all, why would he want to go around killing all the bad guys in the world? Sure, it may seem appealing at first, cleaning up the world of all its scum, but not when you had to deal with the after math. It seemed that, in the end, people never really change, not even death helps with that aspect, so, as the majority of those killed recently were murderers and the like, there had been a dramatic increase in the number of Hollows around recently. It was running Ichigo and his team ragged for the last few weeks since they had been sent to Kanto. Yeah, why would he ever want to be Kira?

Then there was the student from his class who was claiming to be the world renowned detective L, the one who had challenged Kira on national T.V and whose identity was unknown. Still, even if Ryuga was L, why would he be openly telling Ichigo this if he thought him to be Kira, his sworn enemy? From what he had heard from the other students in his class, and from what Uryuu had found out, this rather shabby guy was actually one of the two smartest kids in the year, and this plan seemed really reckless for someone of such a high level of intelligence, it just didn't make sense.

The sunken eyes of Ryuga never left Ichigo's face as he nodded slowly, almost thoughtfully, in response to the question, snapping the shinigami back into reality where he had to fight the sudden urge to laugh, feeling that this whole situation must have been a joke that Renji or someone had set up, it was just far to surreal to be true. After all, he had only been in the area for about 3 weeks max, before that, he had been living quite happily in Karakura town, not really aware of the whole disaster going on to be honest.

"Look… I believe you, I really, do, but why the hell would I be Kira?"

Disbelief coloured his words, and 'L' narrowed his eyes slightly, biting on his thumb nail as he rocked backwards and forwards in that strange, semi foetal position he always sat in.

"Well Kurosaki-kun… you do have that strange habit of running off at random moments and returning with a weird look in your eye, like you've done something you really didn't want to do…"

Ryuga let his words trail off there as he took another bite out of his strawberry cheesecake he had ordered the second they had entered the little café just outside the gates of To-Oh university. For someone claiming to be a world famous detective, he really did have a sweet tooth. Ichigo had noticed him at lunch times, on the rare days that he actually showed up, and all he ever bought to eat were sweets and other forms of sugary treats. Still, it looked like he was not the only one noticing things.

The fact that someone had noticed his odd behaviour was annoying, though not really surprising, after all, the sudden increase in hollow activity had Ichigo running in and out of the campus several times a day, someone was bound to notice sooner or later, but still, the comment about doing something you didn't want to do stung. It was also true.

Since leaving Soul Society, the substitute team had been itching to get involved with the whole case of tracking Aizen, but they had been sent to investigate the cause of the abnormally large number of deaths in the human world instead. It was incredibly vexing for all of them, not the least because there was this annoying reiatsu that kept popping up everywhere that just didn't feel right.

Realising that he needed to respond to the statement so as to appear like a normal person, if that word even applied to him any more, Ichigo suppressed a shudder and blurted out the first, believable, thing that came to mind. Rubbing his temples at the sheer realisation that this comment could have been true.

"Look Hideki-kun, I've told you before. My dad thinks its funny to phone me up at random times in the day and claim that there is an emergency, like the house is on fire, or one of my little sisters was hit by a car, that sort of thing. It's nothing suspicious, just my dad being a prat!"

Yes, and my job taking over every damned minute of my life he thought, but thankfully, his mouth was firmly closed by then, there was no reason to incite probing questions into his work life after all.

For a minute, the other student focused intently on devouring the rest of his cake and ordering another slice from the waitress who had come to refill their drinks. This went on so long that Ichigo began to suspect that his entire presence had been forgotten, and perhaps he should just leave there and then, but, just as he was about to stand, those haunted eyes snapped back to his, trapping him in place.

"So you say Kurosaki-kun, but, if that is the case, why do you rush off every time he calls? Surely a normal person would have learned not to trust everything such a man tells them by now? Oh, and, for the record, the probability of you being Kira will change depending on your answer."

Ichigo felt like slamming his head into the table in front of them. This conversation really wasn't going anywhere fast, and it was beginning to grate on his nerves, the humour long worn thin. Deciding that it was probably better to just tell this guy the truth for now, he steeled himself to give a mini lecture on his history.

"I doubt you'd get it Hideki-kun, you don't have any siblings, but after my mother passed away, its actually all too easy to imagine them getting into some horrible accident and following her. That's why I get so nervous when he tells me these thi-"

He was cut off by an incessant beeping coming from his trouser pocket and, frowning, he reached in to pull out the Hollow detector he had been given before leaving soul society. According to the screen, there was one about two blocks from where he was sitting… and there was no one else near by to deal with it. Just perfect!

"Of all the times…" He growled under his breath, quickly snatching up his school satchel and coat as he sprung to his feet. Making sure he had everything he had brought with him, he shot an apologetic look at the boy across from him, throwing some money down on the table to pay for his drinks.

"Sorry, but I really have to go now, not that this hasn't been an interesting conversation but still…"

With one last wave he started heading towards the door, barely hearing the last remark from the so called detective as the door swung shut behind him. Oh well, let Ryuga believe what he wanted to believe, if needs be, Ichigo could always go into a 'coma' for a few weeks anyway to throw of the police, its not like he was Kira after all.

Maybe this hollow was a good thing, he thought as he ran past the shop window, it would, at least help him to blow off some steam right?

OoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoOoO

L watched as his suspect ran down the street, thinking deeply as he sucked on his spoon. Kurosaki Ichigo was certainly being cautious around him, even if he was acting nonchalant, but did that mean he was hiding something after all? Still, if he really was Kira, would he just run out of the shop even when he, who had confessed to having suspicions regarding him, had called out that leaving then would make the probability of Ichigo being Kira all the more likely? Probably not, Kira would not make such a blunder, but had he actually heard him? That was yet another factor to consider…

Then there was the matter of the mysterious text message that had made the student look so panicked. Could it really be from his father after all, or was that just another cover up? From the file he had read on Ishin, the father, it did not seem at all out of character, but that was what was worrying L. This was something that should have been easily acceptable, given the circumstances and the people involved, but his instincts had never led him wrong before.

Deciding to follow Kurosaki so as to satiate his curiosity over where the other boy disappeared to all the time, L placed some more bills onto the table and hurriedly left the café, ambling in the direction he had seen his 'friend' disappear off in. Curiously, this was not the way to the Kurosaki family home.

After a few minutes of walking in what he thought was the right direction, but with no real success of finding the boy again, he was about to turn back and find someone else to tail the suspect when he caught sight of a flash of orange just ahead of him in the crowd. On the off chance that this flash had been the strangely bright hair of the younger student, he hurried after it, following the colour round a corner and into a sealed off alleyway.

From where he was standing, L could make out the figure of someone who definitely looked like Kurosaki, even if he was facing the brick wall, but, before L could walk forwards and question the odd behavior of the teen, he saw Ichigo raise a hand to his chest quickly, just before his body crumpled to the floor.


	2. Chapter 2

For a moment, the great detective could only stand there and stare down in surprise at the body laying spread eagle on the ground before him. The scene made no sense and, as such, it had frozen his body in place as his mind spun around all the possible causes of what he was currently seeing.

It looked like a Kira attack, though he was sure that Ichigo was guilty of no crime that the international killer would deem worthy of execution, but it also would be far too coincidental for the boy to have a heart attack on the very same day that he had gone to talk to him about the whole issue. Alternatively, the boy was also healthy, that was something that L would readily acknowledge, so in that area too, a heart attack should not be viable in one so young.

As it was, there was no satisfactory explanation for what had just occurred, though one thing was for certain, Kurosaki Ichigo had just become all the more suspicious in his mind's eye.

Belatedly realising that it would probably be a good idea to go and help the teen on the floor and at least check to make sure that he was still breathing, L stooped down and pressed two of his fingers over the artery in the left wrist which was laying away from the body, the right still pinned to the floor, seemingly clutching at the other boy's heart. Thankfully, the pulse was strong and regular, and he seemed to be breathing normally. In fact, if the detective hadn't known any better, he would have thought that the other boy was only sleeping, or at least feigning sleep, but people did not just collapse in the middle of the street for no reason, and Ichigo certainly hadn't looked exhausted when they had spoken earlier. Exasperated by the message yes, but not exhausted.

After another long moment of just watching the other boy lay there, observing him from his signature crouched position, L reached forwards and gingerly poked the boy's shoulder with his index finger as though he was touching something grimy and covered in germs.

"Oi… Kurosaki… this isn't funny you know, you can wake up now."

When he received no answer, he moved forwards slightly so that he was now poking the younger man's cheek, just below his eye, expecting some sort of reaction, though the teen didn't even twitch. Sighing internally, the detective chewed on his lip before deciding on his next course of action.

"Hey… if you don't respond soon, I'm going to phone the hospital and then you'll have to pay the medical bill…"

Normally, this would be a good way to snap people out of their 'midday naps' on the floor in front of the detective, or at least spark some sort of reaction out of the unconscious person, but Kurosaki didn't move in anyway but to breathe… it was rather disconcerting.

Although he did not want to admit that he may be beginning to worry now, the boy was still breathing after all, L could not deny that his hand shook slightly as he reached into his pocket to pull out the phone he always used to talk directly to his second in command. Pulling himself to his feet, he quickly hit speed dial and waited for the call to connect.

"Yes?"

"Watari, I need you to phone an ambulance to the alley way just off of 6th street just out of town. There is one casualty who is currently unconscious though he doesn't seem to be injured and I cannot find a reason for the state he is in."

Without even waiting for a reply, he ended the call and turned back to watch the immobile body of his 'friend' leaning back on the wall of the alley way as he waited for help to arrive.

"You really are strange Kurosaki-kun… also, just so you know, the probability of you being Kira just went up by 8.2%!"

Somewhere, out of the corner of his eye, he thought he saw something move in the shadows at the far end of the walkway, but when he turned to look that way fully, he could not see anything but a few empty bins from the restaurants which made up the walls surrounding them. After a moment of fruitless searching, he was forced to admit that it was a trick of the light, and he was soon distracted by the flashing lights and sirens that had arrived by the entrance to the alley, the bustling medical staff demanding his attention and an explanation of the situation. To his great annoyance, the absurdities of the entire situation had to be forced out of his mind to deal with everything at that time, but they were by no means forgotten.

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

Cursing, Ichigo flung his zampakuto back over his shoulder as he turned back to re-enter his body, but what he saw when he span round made him freeze. He didn't know why exactly, but it never even crossed his mind to think that Ryuuga would have followed him from the café, though in hindsight, it really should have. After all, if the guy was so curious about his running off at random points in the day, even to the extent where he suspected him to be Kira of all people, was it really such a surprise that he would follow Ichigo to see where he really went.

Even as the other boy looked down on his spread eagled body, he had to fight the urge to slam his head into the wall beside him for his own over sight, he even had Kon's stupid little pill in his coat pocket, but no, he had to use the substitute badge instead! At least if he had used the perverted mod soul, he could have explained it all by claiming he was schizophrenic or something, after all, split personalities were much more common that random, unexplained fainting spells.

For a while, he only stood there watching Ryuuga stare down at him as though he was some interesting specimen underneath a microscope (it was great to know what such great friends he had) debating what to do next… he could always go back into his body then, 'wake up', and pass it all off as a violent case of anaemia, believable or not, it was still the most realistic explanation he could come up with other than 'Oh yes, I passed out because I forced my soul out of this fake body I'm using at the moment because, you see, I'm actually a spirit… and not just any spirit, I'm a death god too! Isn't that great?' Yes, because that definitely wouldn't get him sent straight to the loony bin… not to mention that 'L' would probably take that to be a confession of guilt and have him arrested for being Kira or something.

Yes, that seemed to be the only option he had left (bar going to Rukia or Uryu and he really didn't want to listen to anymore 'I told you so' rants at the present moment) however, while he was still in the process of his mental tirade about the entire injustice of the whole situation, Ryuga seemed to finally decided that it might be a good idea to check to see if his 'friend' was still alive. Honestly, did that idiot really have to find the most inconvenient times to suddenly remember the basics about being human? And then, joy of joys, he began talking, making it abundantly clear that he expected Ichigo to be faking, and there by cutting off all any and all chances the young shinigami had of putting this situation to any form of 'rights'. Damn him!

As it was, all the spirit could do was stand there and watch with growing irritation as his fellow student finally went about getting him an ambulance, though he had no idea who 'Watari' was, and, to be perfectly honest, if Ichigo had really had a heart attack, as he was sure the situation made it seem, he was pretty sure that he would have been dead by now, no thanks to a certain pasty skinned, black haired idiot who hadn't stopped biting his thumb throughout the whole thing.

To make matters worse, the hollow that had sparked the whole situation was an idiot, not to mention weak… it had taken Ichigo less than 5 minutes to dispatch the demented thing where it sat raiding bins in the empty alley, seeming to think that the best way to ease it's ravenous hunger was to pick over rubbish like some freaking stray cat… honestly! If he didn't know better, he would have sworn that this was all just some prank his friends had set up to irritate him, but, as it was, it just seemed that the universe really hated him today… just like it did every day.

However, he had just about managed to calm himself down (despite the really helpful image of the moronic Quincy laughing at him every time he tried to think of a way out of the situation) when he heard the soft words spoken by his class mate in such a calm, matter of fact way that it took a moment for the words to register in the shinigami's panicked mind, but when they did, he really did go and start slamming his head against the brick work. Really? How the hell did this make the chances of him being Kira increase? Surely this would lower them if anything right?

Eventually, when the flashing red lights of the ambulance did arrive, it couldn't have come a moment too soon for Ichigo who, now completely exhausted by the constant panicking, only followed his fake body into the vehicle and sat there quietly out of the way, content to deal with what ever happened next when it happened. After all, wasn't that how he normally dealt with his majorly screwed up life?

0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0o0

*Uruhara's Shoten, Karakura town*

"Hey… boss, what are you doing over here in the back, I thought you had finally finished the work on the gigais?"

"Hmmm what? Oh, no, the young Miss Kuchiki got back to be the other day and told me that she had found a major flaw in the latest model of the fake bodies, I'm just working on that now. After all, we can't be selling imperfect merchandise now can we? It's bad for business!"

"Uuuh, sure… what was that flaw anyway? I thought you had Ururu check them through before you put them up for the use of soul society? Not to mention Shinji and them…"

"Ah, yes, well, it seems that we overlooked something… it appears that the gigai relies entirely on the spirit pressure of the owner to keep itself alive, with a heartbeat and breathing etc… so, if they leave it alone for too long while they are out fighting of whatever in their shinigami forms, it appears that they use that energy up and well… for lack of a better word, die."

"Permanently?"

"What? No! Only until they return to their bodies again, but you can imagine the awkward situations that could cause can't you? I think it's best that we fix that problem the best we can."

"Oh… should we send out warnings about it then?"

"Hmmm, probably not Ginta, we can't really spare the staff at the moment with the whole Aizen issue and the only other one to have this type of Gigai is Kurosaki-kun anyway, I'm sure he'll be fine."


	3. Chapter 3

Sitting hunched in the corner of an ambulance while some newbie fresh out of medical school fussed over his 'unconscious' body was most definitely not how Ichigo had planned to spend this evening, and if the look on Ryuuga's face was any indication, this already fabulous situation could only get worse. All the way to the hospital, he had to fight the urge to slam his head repeatedly into the vibrating wall behind him as he so desperately wished. Unfortunately, even though the living could not actively see the spirits of the dead, and by extension, the shinigami, they could still hear it if the spirit could physically interact with their surroundings, and creating sudden, unexplained banging, while amusing, would probably not help in any way… not to mention that the raven haired midget would probably have his head for 'terrorising the humans' or something.

Still, seeing the curious, and more than slightly disturbing manner in which his so called 'friend' was looking him over from his crouched position by the bed, the fight to control this urge was getting harder and harder. Would freaking Ryuuga out and making him paranoid be decent revenge for his delay in 'helping' Ichigo when he was laying on the floor? Probably… but that still didn't mean that he was allowed to do so… he was pretty sure that there must be a law in some old and dusty shinigami rule book forbidding it or something. With a snort, he imagined that it would be right next to the rule dictating that only the clinically insane could take up positions as captains… yeah, that sounded about right.

He was so distracted by this thought, and by cataloguing the individual eccentricities that filled belonged to the Captains of the Gotei 13 (seriously, he was bored) that it took him a moment or two to notice the fact that the activity of the paramedics moving around the confined space had become more erratic and panicked than before. In fact, it wasn't until he had to move his foot out of the way of the youngest of the pair (it wouldn't have really done anything if he had left it there, but it still felt weird to be stepped through all the time) that he even took note of it at all. Further still, it wasn't until he had heard the phrase 'his vitals are crashing' that he realised that something had gone seriously wrong…

With a quick leap, he found himself beside his fake body, and to his mounting horror, he found that the blasted thing really had stopped breathing… curse Hat and Cloggs to the very depths of hell for his useless inventions… why on earth did he even trust that bastard anymore?

However, this new development brought up more questions, not to mention complications. He had originally intended to slip back into his body after reaching the hospital and continuing on with his amnesia plan, but now, he was pretty sure that he couldn't do that now. If he went back to his faux body while it was currently in the process of 'dying' he couldn't be sure that it wouldn't have some adverse effects on his soul body. After all, if injuries gained while in his Shinigami form could transfer into his physical form, couldn't the reverse be true as well? And then there was the cardiac arrest… people's vital organs did not just spontaneously decide that they wanted to shut down due to something simple like anaemia.

Still, maybe the body was dying because he wasn't inside it. It wasn't completely irrational to consider that the bloody thing was powered by his spiritual energy, and that, in his absence, it had lost the energy it needed to power himself. And, of course, there was the third option that there actually was something wrong with his fake body and the fact that it was playing up now was purely coincidental, not very likely, but as he had to keep reminding himself when he was dragged into a brand new disturbing and, more often than not, deadly, situation because of his new part time job; stranger things have, and still do, occur around him with alarming regularity. The problem was, he had no way of actually determining the cause of the issue and, as such, he had no clear starting point for how to go about fixing it.

Still debating the pros and cons of the different options to remedy the problem (curse you Uruhara for forcing him to think before going into potentially dangerous situations) he followed the strange procession as they rushed through the crowded hallways of the hospital, shouting things in a manner that made them pretty incomprehensible. Sometimes he really did miss his family's small time clinic and the simple, unrushed manner there. Unfortunately, one moment of inattention later and he was standing, lost, in a junction with no idea where they had dragged his body off to… how on earth did that even happen?

With a sigh, he was about to head off in a random direction, hoping that his stupid luck would finally come through for him as he blindly searched for the room he had been rushed to when a strange feeling shot through him. One moment he was shifting his weight in preparation to shunpo down his chosen route, and the next, a blinding pain was flushing through his body from his chest area, burning through his veins as it circulated through his entire being. With the shock of the entire thing, and the world steadily turning black around the edges of his vision, it was no real surprise that he didn't notice the fact that he was being pulled through the halls at a break neck pace.

The ride in the ambulance had been tedious at best, not to mention the irritation that flooded him at the thought that the entire situation Did. Not. Make. SENSE!

L was a genius, he was used to knowing things… a lot of things. In situations where normal people could not understand what was happening, he was always three steps ahead, yet here he was, clueless and lost. It was a rather unsettling feeling and he briefly felt a small amount of sympathy for how Wammy must feel when L went off on one of his rants/ deductions about a case, but thankfully, that spear of emotion passed pretty quickly.

Still, the longer this situation persisted, the less sense he made. If Ichigo had been faking the entire thing, then the moment he had sent a call out to summon an ambulance, he should have dropped the façade to avoid having to pay the steep medical bills this would incite, yet he had not. If the teen had only been unconscious due to exhaustion or something as trivial as amnesia, the bright lights, blaring siren and the fast, yet efficient manoeuvring of the paramedics should have brought him round. But again, this had not worked. Instead, his prime Kira suspect was still lying on the stretcher, still as a corpse, and just about as pale as one too.

Of course, it could also be possible that Kira had been watching his entire conversation with the other student and had decided to give L a hint by killing the boy, meaning that Kurosaki Ichigo had either never been Kira, or had been the second Kira, and now the first had decided that he was a liability and decided to off him. Either way, this explanation would mean that L had indirectly done this to the other boy, his suspicion effectively signing Ichigo's death sentence. But that was impossible. If, this was Kira's work after all, then the boy would be dead, instead, when one disregarded the apparent coma, Kurosaki was perfectly healt-

"Grab the oxygen mask, his vitals are dropping… quickly, we need to get him breathing again. Now!"

Okay, so maybe that theory was not completely impossible.

With mild interest (not guilt, there was no way that that small feeling in his chest, stabbing at his heart was guilt, it was curiosity, just like with all his other cases… he was not thinking about how this might not have happened if he had reacted earlier… he was not) L leaned forwards to stare at the deathly pale hue the unfortunately named blonde's skin had taken on. Well, if the boy died now, that would mean that he wasn't Kira and that he would have to find another suspect… that would be vaguely annoying…

Not two minutes after Ichigo's condition began to deteriorate, they arrived at the bustling central hospital, and L steadily followed the paramedics on their mad dash through the emergency room, stopping only long enough to give the boy's personal information to the woman with a clipboard who had stopped him half way down the hall before dashing off after the others again.

Rather irritatingly, as he was not a family member, he was not allowed into the room and was forced to watch through the windows set into the walls, as the doctors quickly pulled open the boy's shirt and hurriedly smeared gel over his chest before prepping the paddles for the defibrillator, that niggling feeling in L's chest that was not guilt growing by the second.

Still, he did not notice the fact that he had begun to hold his breath as the doctors began to administer controlled shocks to the younger man's chest at short intervals. In fact, he did not even notice that he was becoming rather light headed as the doctors worked until a slightly slow, but thankfully steady, beeping sound picked up inside the room and he exhaled quickly in a sigh of relief. It looked like he did not need to find another suspect for the Kira case after all, even if the chances of Ichigo being the first Kira had reduced significantly after this incident. At least, that was how he explained the undeniable emotion that now washed through him.

However, if Ichigo was the second Kira, and the first had tried to kill him off, that meant two things. One, the original Kira had a way of spying on him, something he had been considering for a while actually, and second, and perhaps the most interesting point that hung like a banner of light in his mind: did this mean that Kira did not always succeed?

***Omake: How Rukia found the problem**

(aka, Why working with L is Dangerous for your health)*

_He had been heading back to the station from Ryuuzaki's hotel room at about 4 am to take his turn on the phones when he had found her._

_At first, he had been quite enjoying the journey. The night was cool, but not unpleasantly cold, and due to the frankly ungodly time in the morning, it was actually pretty peaceful in the streets for once. Despite his exhaustion, he had been rather happy, until he spotted a small shadow in the depths of an alley way that branched off from the main street._

_After years as one of the main investigators in the homicide department, Inspector Yagami was proud to say that he had developed a kind of instinct for this sort of thing. So, when those instincts started screaming at him that there was something wrong here, he responded immediately._

_Moving cautiously down the darkened street, one had resting on the can of pepper spray in his pocket just in case, he slowly approached the shadow as it laid, unmoving on the ground, but, when he drew close enough to make out some details, he froze in place with a gasp of horror. Lying on the street in front of him and dressed in a school uniform that looked vaguely familiar to his shocked mind, was a young girl who could not have been any older than his own daughter back at him. Immediately as he processed this, his paternal instincts rose to the surface and, forgetting his prior caution, he dashed to the girl's side._

_Once up close, he soon realised exactly why the middle school uniform looked familiar, and he was forced to fight back the bile rising in his throat when he recognised it from being Sayu's school uniform. And that was when he noticed that the collar was pulled back just enough to reveal the darkened imprint of fingers around the girl's neck and the deep scratches across her collarbone._

_Desperately fighting his imagination that kept wanting to replace the girl's medium length black hair with slightly longer, caramel locks and her ivory skin tone with a more tanned one, Soichiro pressed trembling fingers against the child's marred skin, searching for a pulse. A bitter sense of regret rushed through him when he found none, even when his hand rested across her artery._

_With an disquieting feeling in his gut that kept reminding him that this could have been his daughter, his shifted back slightly in respect for the little girl who had been killed in such a violent manner. closing his eyes as he sent up a prayer for her immortal soul. He could only hope that she had a better after life than she had on earth, and that the man who had so obviously strangled her to death had not done anything worse… it was times like this when Soichiro had the worrying feeling of actually understanding Kira… if this had been Sayu, kami only knows what he would have done._

_Finishing his prayer, he straightened up and cast his eyes back towards the body of the girl, ready to search out all of the details he needed to make the official report when he phoned the police department, only to freeze when he found nothing there._

_After a confused glance around the alley just in case he had moved further than he thought he had, he could only stand there and blink dazedly… where did she go? It wasn't as if she had just stood up and walked away, and he would have noticed if someone else had approached and stolen her body… yet where was the girl? She had been there only a second ago after all…_

_For the next 20 minutes, Detective Inspector Yagami from the Japanese Police force's Homicide department could be seen scanning through bins and other rubbish in the area looking for a body that didn't turn up. In the end, when his search revealed nothing helpful, he decided that he must have been hallucinating due to the complete and utter fatigue that weighed down every part of his body. Working with L was not conductive to a proper sleeping schedule after all… or you never know, perhaps he had just inherited a little of Ryuuzaki's madness, and was seeing murder victims everywhere he went… whatever the explanation was, it would probably be soothed with a nice, hot cup of coffee when he returned to the office… and perhaps a nap… yes, a nap sounded just heavenly right about now._

_With that, the middle aged policeman quickly span on his heels and started on a brisk walk back to the police station, not allowing his eyes to stray from his path any more that night. Such a pity as, if he had only thought to look up, he would have noticed the petite form of a young girl in middle school uniform and raven black hair to her shoulders yelling obscenities into a pink phone about something that sounded strangely like 'defective fake bodies.'_


	4. Chapter 4

In that brief split second before he truly regained consciousness, Ichigo was aware only of how tight his chest suddenly felt. It was like there were some iron bands wrapped around his lungs to stop them from expanding, but this was soon overshadowed by the sharp, stabbing pain originating from the very centre of his chest. Out of all the injuries he had been forced to endure in his short life, this was not even amongst the middle of the pack, but it still caused him to panic in his disorientated state.

A tight chest and pain in the heart were some of the identifying factors of a heart attack.

Was it possible that Kira had found out about their investigation into him and had decided to take them out before they could be a threat? But how could he had found out who Ichigo was in the first place? Could a shinigami even die of a heart attack? However, one pained heart beat later, and his memories of the past hour slowly began to slide back into place... and with their return came his ability to breathe until he was just laying there, quite comfortably in the darkness of his own mind.

Of course... there had been the conversation with his strange classmate who suspected him of being Kira... and then the hollow... and the same classmate making it impossible for him to return to the fake body he had been using since his return. The fake body that had just nearly given out on him, forcing him to be dragged back into it through resuscitation...

Yeah, it was times like this that he really hated old hat and clogs...

It was actually really interesting... if he looked at the situation for an objective stand point that is. The fake body was not his, but it seemed like his soul was still tied to it in the same way that it would if he had still been connected to it by his chain of fate... it must have been the side effect of Urahara using his blood as the base, but who knew that he could be forced back into the body by outside means? And if that was the case... if someone actually did kill his body, would that effect his soul as well?

He must have been on some form of drug to fight off the lingering pain from his chest as, even though the feeling of a small flame burrowing into his skin never really went away, he found himself drifting in and out of awareness. It was something that the teen was becoming depressingly familiar with after his transformation into a shinigami, but it still didn't make it any less disorientating to find himself losing large chunks of the day.

In this constant drugged haze he found himself in however, there were a few moments of blinding clarity that worked to jolt him back to full awareness.

First was being hit by what felt like a truck while he was dozing, though further inspection revealed his attacker to be none other than a distraught Yuzu who had launched herself onto his bed and had refused to let go of him for the rest of her visit. It was times like this, seeing the worried faces of his family (his whole family, no matter how hard old goat-face tried to hide it behind his bad jokes) that Ichigo really began to lose his resolve. Sure, he had first taken up a zanpakuto in order to protect them all, but was it really protecting them if they were constantly worried about him disappearing one day and never coming home?

Despite what many people seemed to thing, he was aware of just how dangerous his new 'part time job' was, hell, he had nearly died so many times in the few months that he had known Rukia... but he just could not stop thinking that this was something he had to do. He was a protector, it was what he had always been... but now, in the small hospital room, with Yuzu hanging from one arm and Karin desperately attempting to hide her tears as she clutched the sleeve of the other... he couldn't help but wonder if he had really been doing what was best for his family...

The second clear moment had been when his friends had visited, and thankfully their usual mixture of concern and mockery/scolding had been enough to draw him out of his darker thoughts. They had not staid long after reassuring themselves that he was not about to keel over just yet, but it had been enough for him to build up his mental defences once again, something he sorely needed in light of his third set of visitors...

Even in his less than lucid periods, the teen had been aware of the shadowed pair of eyes that had been staring intently at him for the whole day, so he had known that it would only be a matter of time until Ryuuga came forwards to confront him once again, still, he had not expected him to bring a friend with him... and not only because he was under the impression that the man didn't have any friends.

The new was completely unassuming at first glance. Neatly cut brown hair and warm amber eyes and a perfect posture offered a contrast to Ryuuga's darker colouring and perpetual slouch. It took a while for Ichigo to work out why he seemed so familiar, but when he realised that this guy was Yagami Light, the one who had scored top of the country in the university entrance exams, it seemed like everything around him seemed to shift slightly. All of a sudden it seemed as though there was something off in the polite warmth that the man cloaked himself in, something fake, and he was reminded all to strongly of Aizen for his taste.

Ichigo was someone who had always prided himself on his instincts. Being able to tell who was a friend or a foe was vital in the shinigami world, but also for a young student who was always hounded by gangs... and it was these instincts that were suddenly set to screaming at the sight of the other student.

Not to mention that, not two seconds after he had registered the threat that the other young man posed, his attention was pulled over to the door where he could make out the looming shape of... something. He couldn't be sure exactly what it was... it looked human, and he couldn't immediately see a hollow hole, but was projecting an aura of bored malevolence that could not bode well for anyone... and it (he?) was looking right at him...

When L had first phoned up Watari and asked him to send an ambulance, there had only been a mild wave of concern pass through the Kira task force as they gathered around one of the many computer banks in the hotel room and the incident was soon forgotten. However, when, and hour later L phoned up once again, it had caused a panic.

Unlike his normal self assured countenance, the team were able to detect a trace of worry in the man's usually monotone voice and on someone who usually had the emotional range of a teaspoon... that was worrying. So, when he requested that Light meet him at said hospital, no one had questioned the strange choice and had, instead, rushed to get the young man over there.

Slightly concerned about what he could have found out to make the detective so nervous all of a sudden, Light had been running through a hundred different possible causes and the damage control he would have to do for each one, even as he rushed to his 'friend's' side, though he definitely hadn't been expecting what he found when he got there.

Sitting, hunched over on one of the horrible plastic chairs in the hotel waiting area and poking at a pathetic looking piece of cheese cake with a plastic fork, L had looked the perfect picture of composure, even in his unusual environment. It was due to this shocking normalcy that it took the honour student a few seconds to make his way over and take a seat beside the man.

"Ah, Light-kun... just in time. I think I found another suspect for the case and I thought that you might like to help with the interrogation?"

For a moment, Light could feel the corner of his eyes twitching at the blasé comment from the detective that was in complete opposition to the panic he had managed to instil into the task force, but with a deep breath he was able to (partially) quell the urge to throttle the man. Knowing L, he had probably done it on purpose to make sure that he arrived without delay, the infuriating bastard.

"Okay, so who are we looking at here?"

With no other acknowledgement than finishing off his treat in two more bites, L had lead him into the room of some one he was shocked to recognise from several of his classes at To-oh and had proceeded to conduct the strangest interrogation that Light had ever been part of. Oh, the questions had been standard, and the answers had done nothing to either increase or decrease the odd of the other man being a Kira (according to L at least) but Kurosaki himself had been interesting to watch... in a morbid way.

The guy must have been given something by the hospital that messed with his head slightly, as he would often have lapses in concentration that would force them to repeat a question, and he would flinch at nothing every now and then. Overall, the other student had come across almost like a drug addict suffering from withdrawal or as someone with severe schizophrenia... Light wasn't sure whether to be insulted or amused that L considered this man a suspect...

Eventually, when the infuriating detective had deemed the interrogation over, he had left the room without even saying a word to Light and leaving him to excuse them from the patients room... only to leave the hospital without waiting for him. Sighing in suppressed agitation, the honour student resigned himself to walking home.

As he walked, he couldn't help but think about this new twist in the delicate game he was playing with L and the task force. If he could manipulate L into moving his suspicions onto this new player, it would give him much more room to manoeuvre his other pieces into position so that when the detective finally figured out that he had been following the wrong man, it would be too late to do anything.

It would be a huge advantage to him in game of cat and mouse, but it would also take a lot of skill to pull off. He didn't doubt his ability to do so at all, but it did raise the question of whether it would be worth the risk to go about this new course of action.

He was so distracted by this new train of thought that Light had not even noticed that Ryuk was still following him until the shinigami let off a low cackle that had the hairs on the back of his neck standing up on end.

"What's got you so happy all of a sudden?"

The comment was offhand, and he hadn't been paying much attention to the response it would create until he saw the absolutely diabolical grin stretch across the spirits face.

"Oh nothing, its just that this game of yours is about to get much more interesting!"

Intrigued now, the human stopped to face his invisible companion fully, a look of expectation flitting across his face.

"And why would that be?"

At first, it seemed as though the spectre wasn't going to say any more on the matter, but after a few more moments of silence, his grin grew wider, showing off almost all of his teeth now.

"That boy... I couldn't see his death date."


End file.
